LEE MARVIN

'Lee Marvin' (February 19, 1924 – August 29, 1987) was an Academy Award-winning American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, Marvin was originally limited to playing mostly villains and war veterans in supporting parts on the big screen, but later (after winning a Best Actor Oscar) he appeared in more heroic and sympathetic roles.

Contents

Biography

Early life and World War II

Acting career

Personal life

Filmography

Television appearances

References

External links

Biography

Early life and World War II

Marvin was born in New York City, the son of Lamont Waltman Marvin, an advertising executive and the head of the New York and New England Apple Institute, and Courtenay Washington (née Davidge), a fashion writer and beauty consultant.^[1] By his father's direct paternal line, he descended from Matthew Marvin, Sr., who immigrated from England in 1635 and is recognized as one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut. By his mother, Lee descended from Augustine Washington, brother to President George Washington.
Lee Marvin (his birth name, contrary to some sources) attended St. Leo Preparatory College in St. Leo, Florida (now known as St. Leo University) after being thrown out of several schools for bad behavior. He left school to join the U.S. 4th Marine Division, serving as a sniper. Marvin was wounded in action during the WWII Battle of Saipan, eight months prior to the Battle of Iwo Jima. Most of his platoon were killed during the battle. This had a significant effect on Marvin for the rest of his life.[1] He was sent home with a
Purple Heart medal, medical discharge and a rank of PFC. (An internet rumor circulated in recent years purports that Marvin appeared on "The Tonight Show" and told host Johnny Carson that he had served in the Marine Corps fighting alongside Bob Keeshan (alias ''Captain Kangaroo'') at the Battle of Iwo Jima. There is no truth whatsoever to this tale. Marvin never told the story, never served on Iwo Jima (having been invalided out after the Battle of Saipan months earlier), and Keeshan never saw combat in any form, having enlisted just before the end of the war.)^[2]
While working as a plumber's assistant, repairing a toilet at a local community theater in upstate New York, Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He then established an amateur off-Broadway acting career in New York City and was an understudy in Broadway productions before moving to Hollywood in 1950.

Acting career

Marvin quickly became a popular figure in supporting roles, and from the beginning was cast in various Western films and WWII or Korean War films. A decorated WWII combat veteran, Marvin was a natural in war dramas, where he frequently assisted the director and other actors in realistically portraying infantry movement, arranging costumes, and even adjusting war surplus military prop firearms. His debut was in ''You're in the Navy Now'' (1951), and in 1952 he appeared in several films, including Don Siegel's ''Duel at Silver Creek'', ''Hangman's Knot'', and the war drama ''Eight Iron Men''. He was featured as the vicious boyfriend of Gloria Grahame in ''The Big Heat'' (1953). Marvin had a small but memorable role in ''The Wild One'' (1953) opposite Marlon Brando, followed by ''Seminole'' (1953), ''Gun Fury'' (1953). He was again praised for his role as the small-town hood Hector in the film ''Bad Day at Black Rock'' with Spencer Tracy (1955).
During the mid-1950s, Marvin gradually began playing more substantial roles. He starred in ''Attack!'' (1956), and ''The Missouri Traveler'' (1958) but it took over one hundred episodes as Chicago cop Frank Ballinger in the successful 1957-1960 television series ''M Squad'' to actually give him name recognition. One critic described the show as "a hyped-up, violent Dragnet . . . with a tough-as-nails Marvin" playing a police lieutenant.
Marvin had more prominent and co-starring roles with John Wayne in ''The Comancheros'' (1961), ''The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'' (1962) and ''Donovan's Reef'' (1963). Marvin also guest-starred in ''Combat!'' "The Bridge at Chalons" (Episode 34, Season 2, Mission 1), and ''The Twilight Zone'' episodes #72 ''The Grave'' (1961), in which he played a fearless gunman investigating the haunted grave of a man who swore to get revenge on him, and #122 ''Steel'' (1963), in which he played a former boxer who gets into the ring with a boxing robot.
Aided by director Don Siegel, Marvin appeared in the groundbreaking ''The Killers'' (1964) playing an organised, no-nonsense, efficient, businesslike professional assassin whose character was copied to a great degree by Samuel L. Jackson in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film ''Pulp Fiction''. This film was also the first time Marvin received top billing in a film.
Marvin won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Actor for his comedic performance in the offbeat western ''Cat Ballou''. Following roles in ''The Professionals'' (1966) and the hugely successful ''The Dirty Dozen'' (1967), Marvin was given complete control over his next film. In ''Point Blank'', an influential film with director John Boorman, he portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. In that film Marvin, who had selected Boorman himself for the director's slot, had a central role in the film's development, plot line, and staging. In 1968, Marvin also appeared in another Boorman film, the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful ''Hell in the Pacific'', co-starring famed Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. He had a hit song with "Wand'rin' Star" from the western musical ''Paint Your Wagon'' (1969).

Marvin had a much greater variety of roles in the 1970s and 1980s, with fewer 'bad-guy' roles than in earlier years. His 1970s films included ''Monte Walsh'' (1970), ''Prime Cut'' (1972), ''Pocket Money'' (1972), ''Emperor of the North Pole'' (1973), ''The Iceman Cometh'' (1973) as Hickey, ''The Spikes Gang'' (1974), ''The Klansman'' (1974), ''Shout at the Devil'' (1976), ''The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday'' (1976), and ''Avalanche Express'' (1978).
Marvin's last big role was given to him by Samuel Fuller for ''The Big Red One'' (1980). His remaining films were ''Death Hunt'' (1981), ''Gorky Park'' (1983), ''Dog Day'' (1984), ''The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission'' (1985), with his final appearance being in ''The Delta Force'' (1986). He provided monologue for "The Dead Flag Blues" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor which was released in 1996, which was originally recorded as part of a film about jail by Efrim Menuck.^[3]
Jim Jarmusch is the founder of a secret society The Sons of Lee Marvin whose members reportedly include Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and John Lurie. Lee Marvin's real son objected to the organization when he encountered Waits.^[4]

Personal life

Marvin was a regular on again/off again resident of Woodstock, NY throughout the 1970s. He frequented Katz's Deli, a delicatessen located on Tinker Street. A father of four, Marvin was married twice:
# Betty Ebeling (February 1951 - January 5, 1967) (divorced).
# Pamela Feeley (October 18, 1970 - August 29, 1987) (his death).
When filming a movie in Las Vegas in 1966, he and others complained that Vegas Vic's "howdy partner" was too loud. The voice box was removed.^[5]
In 1971, Marvin was sued by long-time girlfriend Michelle Triola (who called herself Michelle Marvin at the time). Though the couple never married, she sought financial compensation similar to that available to spouses under California's alimony and community property laws. The result was the landmark "palimony" case, ''Marvin v. Marvin'' 18 Cal. 3d 660 (1976).^[6]
On April 18, 1979, Judge Arthur K. Marshall ordered Marvin to pay $104,000 to Ms. Triola for "rehabilitation purposes" but denied her community property claim for one-half of the $3.6 million which Marvin had earned during their six years of cohabitation. In August 1981, however, the California Court of Appeal reversed this decision, declaring that Ms. Triola was entitled to no money whatsoever, in that the co-habitant in an unmarried cohabitative relationship has no community property claim, but merely a contract claim. Without evidence of any contract between Mr. Marvin and Ms. Triola for Mr. Marvin to provide her support after the end of their relationship, Ms. Triola could not recover any money.^[7][8]
When visiting co-star Vivien Leigh at her home in London, England with his girlfriend at the time, Michelle Triola, he tore up a deck of antique playing cards that they were playing with. Much to Triola's surprise, Leigh was not at all disturbed by Marvin's boorish behavior but seemed enchanted by him. The trial court victory of Michelle Triola supposedly led to a Hollywood slang term, "Marvinized". Triola lost on appeal and never received any money from Marvin.
Marvin died in 1987 of a heart attack in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 63, and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

Filmography

★ ''Hangman's Knot'' (1952)

★ ''The Big Heat'' (1953)

★ ''The Wild One'' (1953)

★ ''Pete Kelly's Blues'' (1955)

★ ''Bad Day at Black Rock'' (1955)

★ ''The Comancheros'' (1961)

★ ''The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'' (1962)

★ ''The Killers'' (1964)

★ ''Cat Ballou'' (1965)

★ ''Ship of Fools'' (1965)

★ ''The Professionals'' (1966)

★ ''The Dirty Dozen(1967)

★ ''Point Blank'' (1967)

★ ''Hell in the Pacific'' (1968)

★ ''Paint Your Wagon'' (1969)

★ ''Prime Cut'' (1972)

★ ''Pocket Money'' (1972)

★ ''Emperor of the North Pole'' (1973)

★ ''The Iceman Cometh'' (1973)

★ ''The Klansman'' (1974)

★ ''Avalanche Express'' (1979)

★ ''The Big Red One'' (1980)

★ ''Death Hunt'' (1981)

★ ''Gorky Park'' (1983)

★ ''The Delta Force'' (1986)

Television appearances

★ ''M Squad''

★ ''Climax!''

★ ''Wagon Train''

★ ''General Electric Theater''

★ ''Route 66''

★ ''Bonanza''

★ ''The Virginian''

★ ''The Untouchables''

★ ''The Dick Powell Show''

★ ''Combat''

★ ''The Twilight Zone''

★ ''Kraft Suspense Theatre''

★ ''Dr. Kildare''

References

1. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/marvin.htm
2. http://www.snopes.com/military/marvin.asp
3. http://www.biggeworld.com/decay/deadflag.html
4. Jarmusch's Guilty Pleasures
5. Vegas Vic Lives! John Katsilometes
6. http://online.ceb.com/calcases/C3/18C3d660.htm
7. California "Palimony" Law -- An Overview Laskin, Jerry
8. http://www.peoples-law.org/family/Unmarried%20Cohabs/Cohabs%20Right%20to%20Support%20-%20WLC.htm

External links

★

★ ''Film Comment'' profile of Marvin

★ Roger Ebert's interview with Marvin

★ 1969 ''Playboy'' interview

★ ''Outre'' profile